June through September 2007 brought record sea ice melt in the Arctic, well below the previous record low, set in September 2005. According to the NSIDC, on September 16, 2007, sea ice extent dropped to 1.59 million square miles, 38% below average and 24% below the 2005 record. This image of the Arctic was produced from sea ice observations collected by the AMSR-E Instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite on September 16, overlaid on the NASA Blue Marble. The image captures ice conditions at the end of the melt season. Sea ice (white, image center) stretches across the Arctic Ocean from Greenland (top) to Russia, but large areas of open water were apparent as well. In addition to record melt, the summer of 2007 brought an ice-free opening though the Northwest Passage (clearing to right of main ice mass) that lasted several weeks. Although the 2007 melt season started out with slightly greater sea ice extent than 2005, melt accelerated in the second half of June, especially in the East Siberian Sea (bottom. Because of its light color, Arctic sea ice reflects most of the sunlight reaching it back into space. In contrast, dark ocean water absorbs most of the sunlight.